TAUPO Motorsport Park has further entrenched itself as the favourite to host a new Supercars round across the ditch as soon as next year.
Supercars personnel visited the central North Island venue on May 10 to assess its holistic feasibility to hold a championship event.
Speaking exclusively with V8 Sleuth, Supercars CEO Shane Howard reported the inspection was a success.
“We had a representative from (the department of) motorsport there; obviously Tim Watsford, who is heading up our government relations and leading the proposal to Major Events New Zealand; and Phil Shaw, our event manager,” Howard explained.
“They had meetings at the venue, they looked at all aspects of it.
“There’s a lot of things to be considered in a venue, so not only the racing side of it and accommodating what we need to do to facilitate a championship event but also crowd, infrastructure, all those items.
“I believe all the meetings went very well and we’re in the final stages of our submissions. It’s a very lengthy process, very detailed process for government.”
Three-time champion and proud Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen has been keenly advocating for a New Zealand return, but has flagged concerns about the Taupo region’s capacity for major events.
“For me, I think A1GP showed that Taupo can’t host big events – the town’s not really big enough with the distances people were having to travel to get accommodation,” he told the Castrol Motorsport News Podcast late last month.
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Taupo hosted A1GP on three occasions, from 2007-09.
Howard does not share van Gisbergen’s viewpoint.
“It’s a holiday town, right?” said Howard.
“I mean, you look at a place like Bathurst, it’s a small town, it doesn’t have a lot of motel accommodation, but you have got to look at all aspects, where you can camp.
“Time of the year is always a critical element with those aspects as well.”
While Howard declined to reveal a likely timeslot, staying out of the heart of winter is all but guaranteed.
“That gets hard, in putting a calendar together, because apart from events like up in Darwin and Queensland which are good conditions during our winter, the calendar gets very heavily loaded at the front end and rear end of the year,” he noted.
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“So putting it together is always challenging to accommodate every venue’s preference but that’s why we’re trying to get onto it early.”
Howard has previously indicated the 2024 calendar should start to take shape by the end of May, with Newcastle and Albert Park the other events with key question marks looming.
“It never happens as quickly as you like,” he admitted.
“That’s what I would like so that we can put the jigsaw puzzle together.
“But obviously AGP, Newcastle, New Zealand are really the events that we’re looking to get confirmation for so then we can develop it from there.”
The chance to add an overseas event outside of Australasia – such as Singapore – is also a consideration.